amande01

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About amande01

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sarinity3

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I'm currently in school for an MS in Forest and Natural Resources Management and I'm a vegetarian. I work out 3-5 days a week (it depends on my schedule) and I enjoy hiking (which I get to do a lot of with my degree). I also have three cats and I've been gluten free for over 2 years.

I just wanted to put up a warning about antibiotics. They kill off the good and bad bacteria in the digestive tract. They can also cause sudden weight gain. I had over 3 times the normal bacteria in my digestive tract, and a 1 week antibiotic actually caused 4 months of steady weight gain. I gained 20 pounds in 4 months. The weight gain started the week I stopped taking the meds (I weigh myself daily so I could pin point the weight problem). They will keep trying to make you take the antibiotics but I suggest checking out the candida diet that others have recommended that I try. I'm currently looking into it and it seems logical and helpful. Just be careful with the use of antibiotics. I think that consuming organic yogurts are the best way to help control the overgrowth by promoting good bacteria. Good luck.

I went gluten-free a month before my colonoscopy and it screwed with the test results. It depends on the blood test that they ran on you. If they only ran a simple antibody test it may have messed that test up. If they ran the genetic test and it came back negative for celiac disease you still may be gluten intolerant. I was reading a journal which was making a distinction between celiac disease (genetic) and gluten intolerance (won't show on a genetic test). If you feel better on a gluten-free diet then you should stay on the diet. I actually had gastritis and it reacted with almost everything, but some foods worse than others.... so your symptoms aren't too strange. Have them test your liver enzymes, and if they are elevated it is another symptom of celiac disease (among many other diseases). At least then it may help them with a diagnosis. I honestly don't trust doctors very much. I find that the ones I have been to are pretty lazy and could honestly care less after they tell you yes or no to a symtom/disease. I'm on my third doctor right now. Good luck!

I actually was dairy free for about a year right when I was diagnosed. I do eat a ton of beans, soy products, and tofu. People actually consume more protein than they really need due to cultural changes since the 80's. The bloating is odd because it happens very unexpectantly. I tried eating the same meals for a week and 4 days I was fine, bloated the fifth and sixth day, and back to normal on the seventh. I'm definately looking into the candida diet.

I have a pretty severe case of gastritis. Gastritis can cause a whole bunch of symptoms and they can give you Protonix, which lowers the acid levels in your stomach. Be careful if they give you any medication because I've reacted badly to all the meds they've tried on me. The meds actually made it much worse. Stay away from foods that contain higher acid levels like tomato, oranges, and onions/hot peppers. They will make it much much worse. Try to eat only a few meals each day (3 or 4) because frequent meals actually keeps the acid levels higher in your stomach. Good luck with the diagnosis. Most people have the gastritis heal up after a few months... mine has lasted a few years. Oh, and it can be caused by a lack of B-12. They can test your B-12 levels in a blood test. Just figure out what foods trigger the painful symptoms. Good luck!

At the time I took the antibiotics I didn't know anything about probiotics. I took a course a month after but I have a feeling that the antibiotics may have damaged quite a bit. In response to a typical day's diet: Yogurt, bananas, gluten-free cereal, eggs, salads, rice, vegetables, squashes. I'm a vegetarian so my diet is pretty restricted and I keep it fairly uniform so I can tell if a certain food is making me sick. I rarely eat rice pastas since spaghetti squash is actually cheaper. I do drink milk and eat dairy products but it's been 2 years of a gluten-free diet so I believe my stomach is fairly healed. I should also mention that normally my stomach only bloats in the late afternoon or evening. I never bloat in the morning. It's strange. It always happens after 3pm. Thanks for the suggestions so far!

I've gone through 2 GI doctors who both couldn't figure out what was going on. Now I'm seeing and endocrine specialist, but all my tests came back as normal. I actually did the bacteria overgrowth test and I came back with bacteria results that were 3 times the normal amount. I took the antibiotic and it actually made me gain 20 pounds in 4 months. It was crazy but I found out that antibiotics can actually cause weight gain. The antibiotic only helped for less than 2 weeks though. I'll have to check out that diet you both mentioned. I've actually never heard of it. Thanks for the replies!

I've known that I've had celiac disease for 2 years now, but unforunately a gluten-free diet has not cleared up all my problems. I'm still suffering from some severe chronic symptoms. I bloat to the point where I look over 5 months pregnant, cannot fit into my pants, and even have trouble breathing. This bloating can occur because I'm either A) hungry sat down or laid down too soon after eating C) bent over for too long D) breathed in some air. I swear it just happens whenever it feels like it and everything is a trigger. Plus, the doctors I had didn't believe me for 2 years until it actually happened in their office (even though I had shown them pictures). Then 3 of them came in and looked at me (sitting there with pants undone trying to breathe normally) and did nothing. They basically said how interesting it was and how they had never seen this before, but did nothing to help. Additionally, I have intense pains in my stomach. It feels like I swallowed a box of toothpicks some days. Usually the pain then triggers my stomach to bloat. I also get terrible headaches. Normally they are triggered by light (tv light, light off the computer screen) or sometimes they just come out of no where. I'm hoping someone can help or has similar problems and has a diagnosis. My doctors are practically useless and it's getting very depressing. Please help!

Oh I've been there! Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Hathor, I've been in the same boat a million times, but normally they are saying "I can't believe you weigh so much" because I'm a vegetarian and have celiac... but I can't drop weight to save my life. I'm 5'10" and 195... but I work out 5 days a week!!! My boyfriend has a blast telling people I'm a veg and he does it because he thinks its neat... but some people can't believe a veg isn't a size 2. Sorry... needed to vent there as well. I'm going to try the plate idea and just tell people I have a food allergy that is autoimmune related and avoid all details. We'll see how it goes since I have a party in 2 weeks. I've also decided to not tell anyone that the food I'm bringing is gluten free since the last time I said that everyone went around it. After they eat something I'll mention it to 1 or 2 people. Thanks again, and I think everyone needs to vent sometimes!

So my awesome boyfriend invited me (very last minute) to a get-together with his AA group. I can't drink alcohol anyway so I thought it would be fun since I've never met his group before. Normally I bring food so that I have something to eat, but since this was last minute I didn't have the ability to prepare anything. Once everyone started eating they noticed that I was not eating anything and the questions started to pour in. There were constant "aren't you going to eat anything?" questions and I would reply that I would like to but I was allergic to x, y, and z. That's when they would go "oh" and turn away! Apparently I was being a kill-joy by not eating, and I didn't mean to be! I tend not to go to parties because I get tired of people asking why I'm not trying this dish or that dish (it doesn't help I'm also vegetarian). All I can say is it was terribly depressing. I've been on this diet almost three years so I should be use to it, but I'm not. I know what the foods taste like that I'm missing and I know the horrible consequences of my eating them so I wouldn't try any of them, but it's really depressing. I think that no one except my mother and best friend understand why it can be depressing, but when I tell people I'd rather not go to a party I feel like the party pooper. Does anyone have any suggestions on how they got over being depressed, or how they deal with the questions? I'm always polite and try to think the best of all the questions, but it does get to me. What did all of you do to deal with this? Thanks!

Ugh! I just went jeans shopping today... when you see the weight you gain while standing on the scale it's not so bad. It's when you try to wiggle into jeans while saying "i refuse to go up another size" while standing in a dressing room that's really depressing. I think I'm going to fire my endocrine specialist by the end of the month if she doesn't get a move on with my weight problems. I don't understand why the doctors don't seem to take the weight gain seriously...

Good advice. It actually turns out that I produce too much stomach acid (or so I'm told but lord knows my gastro doc is terrible). Unfortunately there are not many gastro doctors in my area. Well the endocrine doc said she'd test for the thyroid problems, but then said she wouldn't put me on meds if I did have hypothryoidism because it could turn it hyper. Has anyone else had a doctor tell them that? They are running a million blood tests next month. Right now she's thinking polycystic ovary syndrome. Has anyone else been diagnosed with celiac and POS? So far this doctor seems ok, but my gastroenterologist is terrible and I'm not having much faith in the medical profession at the moment! Blah!

Well I'm going to an endocrine specialist today at 11am to see if they can figure something out about the weight gain. I've had my thyroid checked and it came back normal, but I'm going to have them do the full panel that was mentioned earlier. My body shape never changed until recently, even though I had been gluten free for 2 years. I don't know if going lactose free will help if you are not lactose intolerant... I tried it. Soy products have more calories and fat than skim milk. I just stopped drinking and eating soy based lactose free foods last week in an attempt to see if the weight will come off. Unfortunately I just stepped on the scale this morning and noticed I have gained another pound. Devastating. I'm trying a new diet of organic yogurt with banana, rice with vegetables and tofu (I'm a vegetarian as well... so there's even less to eat!), rice puffs with skim milk, salads, and I snack on hummus and low fat baked chips. My stomach also gets distended as well. Recently I was put on protonix for gastritis. It might help to get checked for that. I had it quite badly which caused my stomach to get so distended my skin went bright red from stretching. Taking the protonix along with tums every day has really helped, even though I still look a little off at the end of the day. I'll ask the doc today about the weight gain since thats the point of my appointment. I'll let you all know what I get out of him or her.

I was diagnosed almost 2 years ago (confirmed by genetic test 2 weeks ago) but I only started gaining weight in June. Between June and October I gained almost 20 pounds. Nothing in my diet or excerise changed, but I swear my doctor could care less and assumes I'm just stuffing my face. This is definately not the case. I'm a vegetarian as well, which means that most fatty foods are totally cut out of my diet. I also work out 4 to 5 days a week. It's very frustrating. I also bloat severely after I eat or drink anything. My stomach bloats to the point where I can't even where any of my clothes. Has anyone else been having these problems? I just seems odd that it has started so long after I began the gluten-free diet.

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Celiac.com was founded in 1995 by Scott Adams, author of Cereal Killers, founder and publisher of Journal of Gluten Sensitivity, and founder of The Gluten-Free Mall, who had a single goal for the site: To help as many people as possible with celiac disease get diagnosed and living a happy, healthy gluten-free life!